Seijuro Shin
Seijuro Shin (進 清十郎, Shin Seijūrō) is one of the star players of the Ojo White Knights, and the ace of the team. Playing the defensive position of linebacker, he is known for his strength, speed, and his famous Spear Tackle. Although later on in the series he also plays offense as a fullback. Characteristic Shin is the fastest and strongest defensive player in Japanese history. His signature move is the Spear Tackle, a powerful one-arm thrust that can stop any opponent, and later, agonizing players so much that they refuse to touch the ball ever again (much more honourable than a spear in a real game, where the tackling player leads with his helmet). He is one of the few characters who figured out that Sena was Eyeshield 21 right away. He does consider Eyeshield 21 as a formidable opponent, as he admitted during the interview before the Kanto Elimination Rounds. This is because Sena is able to achieve the legendary Speed Of Light pace (40 yards in 4.2 seconds), and was the one person who actually beat him and his Spear Tackle outright with pure speed (no cuts-moves, etc.). It was through this experience that Shin was driven to improve on his running as well as his strength. He's very good at analyzing a person's moves and how to react accordingly to stop him. Shin somewhat resembles Kenshiro from Fist of the North Star, which is used humorously in the manga to show Sena's fear of Shin (as a delusion - it's suggested that "Delusion Shin" can probably use "Hokuto-shinken" as well). Shin has been said to be the perfect player without any flaw in his ability which is because he can run at the human limit and he is near to being close in physical strength to strong players like Kurita. History One interesting note is that Shin and Sena have met previously back in grade school, though unknowingly at the time. In a flashback, Sena is running with Riku as they train to become faster. Sena almost runs into Shin as he is chasing after a car to return a 100 yen piece to a man who had dropped it. After returning the money, Shin briefly notices the small, scrawny Sena who seemed unusually fast. The memory of him seemed to linger in Shin's memory, and drove him on to become faster. The two would not meet again until much later on the football field. Haruto Sakuraba befriended him on their first day at Ojou Middle School since they seats were ordered alphabetically and Sakuraba sat directly in front of him. Shin was with Sakuraba when they happened to pass by the football club recruiting new members. They immediately noticed Sakuraba because of his height and convinced him he can become a great receiver. While Sakuraba was filling out an application form, another of the seniors asked if Shin would like to sign up as well. Shin had complied, and then was noticed by Shouji, the White Knights' coach. After a while, Shin's incredible skill started to make everyone notice him, and soon, he started to overshadow Sakuraba. Synopsis Shin's mind is constantly on his physical conditioning. While the Devil Bats are celebrating their first victories in the Fall Tournament, they meet up with the White Knights part-way, and the two teams go to eat together at a buffet restaurant. Even then, Shin uses the hoarding on the restaurant, which is a model of a bull's head (horns and all) to exercise on, by doing push-ups and one-handed chin-ups on. Shin was based on legendary martial artist and actor Bruce Lee - his facial features seem to confirm this. Shin also seems to actually recognize person from the body build, instead of facial features (He can recognize Sena easily as Eyeshield 21) he recognized Sena as Eyeshield 21 after Sena and Monta were robbed by bikers. Shin and Sena ran after them while Shin caught up to the bikers by flanking the route they were taking and took them down off of their bikes with a clothesline punch. He recognized Sena' running style to be the same as Eyeshield 21's while he returned with to Monta with his stolen money. He also got confused when he got asked about Sakuraba new haircut and during Deimon Devilbats match against Bando Spiders, he had no idea Sena used to wear an eyeshield when Takami comments that he has finally removed it and revealed his true identity). During the summer before the Fall Kantou Tournament, he trains at Mt. Fuji to perfect the 'Ballista' technique. At the end of the Fall Tournament he is voted as the MVP (Most Valuable Player) as well as one of Tokyo's Best Eleven in the defensive position as linebacker, and prepares to face off against Eyeshield 21 in the Kantou Tournament. In the anime, Shin does go up against Sena and his new Devil Bat Ghost maneuver early on. Initially he was shocked that his traditional one-arm Spear Tackle was useless against the Ghost. Sena succeeded in passing him twice. This was a rare moment in which he doubted his own ability. This led him to develop the Twin Spear Technique, using both arms to stop Eyeshield 21. Later on, he witnesses Sena develop the Devil Bat Tornado, causing him to realize that his rival was fast-evolving. He vowed to train even harder for when he and Eyeshield 21 would meet in the final showdown. Unfortunately, unless there is a major twist in the story, this is fated not to happen; Ojo and Deimon were drawn in the same half of the Kantou tournament and, providing they win their quarter-final matchups, would meet in the semi-finals. Prior to the start of their game against the Sado Strong Golems in the quarterfinals, Shin approaches Riku Kaitani of the Seibu Wild Gunmen, telling him of a combination of the Spear Tackle with his "Rodeo Drive", creating a new technique called the "Trident Tackle". Used to crush Sado easily, the technique is actually preparation for the semi-final opponent: Sena and the Devil Bats! The Ballista debuts during a practice match of their team with the Oujou Silver Knights, their school's college team that also had the famous Golden Generation. The White Knights won 20-3 without letting their opponent score a single touchdown. On that same day, it also happened to be Oujou's school festival. Hiruma Youichi used this opportunity to investigate the Ballista. Because the match took place in a closed field, Hiruma could only do with reading the score board and deduced that Ballista involves using Shin in their offensive line to cause such point difference. In a true Hiruma-like method, he disguises as the quiz bowl host and blatantly asks the whole White Knights team who were watching to confirm his suspicions. Takami instantly knew that Hiruma was trying to gauge their reactions and refused to give in to his egging by keeping a straight face. However, Shin realized Hiruma was only going this far because all of Deimon's tricks have been revealed in their match against Shinryuuji Naga and pleads with Takami that he wanted a fair fight against their greatest rival in the tournament. Takami eventually concedes and confirms Hiruma's suspicion but at the same time stating his confidence that there was no way they could beat the reborn Oujou, the strongest one since its establishment. In the anime, Shin is one of the contestants in the quiz bowl with Takami as his partner. He couldn't answer simple questions, which were mostly about Oujou (such as the name of Sakuraba's modelling agency), and perspires heavily in frustration. The only question he answered though was one related to football. He has total confidence in both Ojo defeating the Devil Bats and his final domination of Sena. In chapter 210, his theory seemed set to be put to the test as both players collide during Deimon's opening drive. However, this turned out not to be the case, as his fellow teammate Ikari tackled Eyeshield first. However, as Deimon's first drive continues, Shin immediately realized that the Devil Bats had a distinct advantage over Ojo in terms of ability on the field. With the Devil Bats members playing both offense and defense, and using Seibu's Shotgun Strategy, they went with 100% effort regardless of risk while the Knights only used 99%. He then persuades Sakuruba to join him on defense as he knows that only he could match Raimon Taro in terms of catching. Though the Knights were able to stop the Devil Bats from scoring the first touchdown of the game, Deimon still took the lead with a field goal. Shin recognized the power and ability of Musashi's kicking leg, but was unable to deflect the ball, due to being blocked by Sena. With the score 0-3 in Deimon's favor, Shin now comes to play on offense. Using the Ballista tactic, the White Knights take the lead 6-3, with a touchdown by Sakaruba, but a failed extra kick attempt. Realizing that Deimon could still score with field goals, Shin and his team must prevent the Devil Bats from scoring any touchdowns. When the Devil Bats reclaim the ball, Shin surprises everyone by revealing his greatest secret: he has finally reached the "Speed of Light Pace" that only Sena himself had reached! Using the power of his new-found speed and the Trident Tackle, he both catches up and stops Sena's rushing attempt, saying he has finally proven once and for all that he is the better player. At this time, Sena has not found a means to either avoid or surpass Shin, proving that the Ojo player has ultimately become the perfect player of the tournament. However, Sena finally reveals that he has discovered a means to finally fight back while rushing with the ball: the Devil Stungun, a dagger-like arm jab that blocks any defensive movements from Shin's Trident Tackle and allows him to continue moving down the field. With this ability, Sena appears to finally found a way around his rival...until a subsequent rush towards the end-zone finds Shin using his Speed of Light Pace and a slight grab forcing Deimon to come up short for a touchdown. Subsequently, as the match becomes an offensive duel, Shin becomes the main defensive line supporting Sakuraba in a formation to protect pass receptions and allowing Ojo to remain on top of Deimon with three minutes left in the game. However, his team was unable to stop Deimon from scoring and taking the lead. During the last play of the game, Shin is handed the ball and seemed unstoppable as he approached the goal line in what appears to be certain victory. The plan was to score with no time left on the clock. However, Deimon's weakest player (in terms of strength, skill and stamina) Yukimitsu pushes him through to score before time ran out. With one second on the clock and Deimon receiving one last kickoff, Shin ends up chasing after Sena one last time, with the winner of this final showdown determining the Kanto finalist. In the end, Shin's Trident Tackle was defeated by Sena's combination of the Devil Bat Ghost, Devil Bat Dive and Devil Stungun. At the end of the Deimon/Ojo game, Shin is elected as the new team captain for the White Knights, and makes a promise to Sena to compete against him again in the following Spring Season. At the end of the game and his final chat with Sena, Shin smiles for the first time in the series. After the game, it was revealed that he'd become one of the trainers for Deimon's special training for Christmas Bowl, more specifically, the personal trainer of Sena. They trained using the square path, optimizing Sena's skill to do extremely sharp cut without losing his speed and to build his stamina. Shin is one of the players recruited for Team Japan's participation in the Youth World Cup. He agreed to help Sena and Monta look for other recruits within the Kantou area while Yamato and Taka searched at Kansai. To Sena and Monta's horror, Shin's first suggestion was the fearsome genius Agon Kongo. Thankfully, Agon happened to watch retired NFL player Morgan's announcement on television offering $3 million and an NFL contract to whoever wins MVP in the Wolrd Cup, and he volunteers himself before they could ask. The four meet up with Gaou at a crowded fastfood chain. Shin, Agon and Gaou intimidated the other patrons so much that some of them agreed to leave and give up their seats for them. Shin only ordered water, refusing to eat junk food. It soon became clear that Gaou and Agon could never along when Agon stated he did not want the slow Kurita to play on the team and both resorted to fighting. Shin quickly intervened by stopping them both with an arm each. Though he later notes that Gaou has so much power to cause his arm pain. Shin and the rest of the Japanese players are unable to play in their first match against Russia due to Agon's meddling, who hid all of their uniforms. Takami, the Huh-Huh brothers and Onihei, recruited earlier by Agon as part of his scheme to keep the $3 million all to himself, were the only ones with uniforms and played in their place. Shin, Sena, Riku and Yamato, the four fastest people on the team promised to run back to the hotel to retrieve their uniforms. When they came back though, they weren't needed anymore as Japan lead by a wide margin and eventually won the match. 'Techniques and strategies' *'The Pace of The Speed of Sound' - Before Shin reaches the Speed of Light, Shin Has the 40-yard dash in 4.4 seconds. He also known to be the fastest in High School Level before Sena stepped in. *'The Pace of The Speed of Light' - Shin has the 40-yard dash in 4.2 seconds making him the same speed as Sena,and he is known as one of the Four Fastest in Japan. *'Strength' - Shin is one of the most powerful High School Footballers. He can lift 140 kg while benchpressing with only his two index fingers, he is shown to be powerful enough to lift up Kurita, and destroy any electronical equipment such as Vending Machines, Laptops, etc by just touching it. *'Spear Tackle' - Shin uses a one-arm thrust aimed at his opponent's midsection, which is usually enough to stop him in his tracks. It can stop Sena's normal running tactics, Panther's Zero Gravity Run and Riku's Rodeo Drive, but it proves useless in the anime against the Devil Bat Ghost. During Fall tournament, the strength of his tackle is so devastating that it makes opposition players traumatized, to the point that they refuse to touch the ball ever again. *'Twin Spear Tackle' - By using both arms in the thrust, Shin is able to counter the Devil Bat Ghost. Shin also uses this on other players to stop them and make them fumble, as seen in the rematch against the Sankaku Punks. Whether it can overcome the Devil Bat Tornado is yet unknown. Twin Trident tackle is when Shin uses both hands and delievers two powerful thrusts which can be turned into grabs. This how he tackled Panther in the final minutes of tournament. *'Trident Tackle' - First seen in the 203rd Down. In order to counter Sena's light-speed running, Shin asked Riku (Sena's childhood friend, now playing for the Seibu Wild Gunmans) on how to do his Rodeo Drive. By combining this method along with his Spear Tackle, Shin is able to suddenly shoot forward at 120% of his maximum speed during the instant he charges his opponent. This also delivers a more powerful thrust. It has proven effective against Sena's Devil Light Hurricane move by chapter 218, but by chapter 228, Sena seems to have found the weak point. The tackle cannot be stopped head-on, but can be deflected from the side. Sena demonstrates this by using his arms to redirect the momentum of the tackle. It doesn't stop the charge completely, but it delays Shin long enough for Hiruma to avoid being blitzed. *'Ballista' - In chapter 206, it was revealed that the Ballista is a formation that involves putting Shin into offense. This was information that Takami, the Knights' quarterback, offered up freely when Hiruma gatecrashed the Ojo Festival Quiz. When it comes to the first Ojo drive of their game against Deimon, Takami is so confident of the formation's success that he actually tells the Bats which way the play will go - and he doesn't bluff them either. The nature of the Ballista is to use a Spear (Shin's trademark move) to open up a hole for the ball carrier to get through. *'Sagittarius -' A combination of Sakuraba and Takami's Everest Pass and his own Trident Tackle, Shin becomes Sakuraba's guard allowing him to catch passes while he defends against the opposing defense. The main weaknesses is that Shin's focus can be split and if Takami is targeted, then the play becomes useless. *'Speed of Light Pace -' After discovering Sena's ability to run 40 yards in 4.2 seconds, Shin trained consistently throughout the year until he finally achieves the ability to do the same during the game against the Devil Bats. By achieving this speed, Shin is able to combine it with his strength to stop even speedy players like Sena. *'Trident Light Spear Tackle -' Not the confirmed name, but will probobaly be likened to this, it combines the Trident Tackle and the Speed of Light Pace, it defeated the Devil Light Hurricane easily but it was beaten eventually with Sena's One Man Devil Bat Dive. Trivia *Although he is always serious when it comes to his training, but is almost at an absolute loss when it comes to technology. He will break any kind of device within one minute of being handed it, since he has no idea of how the device works. So far, he's broken a camcorder, a GPS device, an automatic turnstile and later on, a laptop. In the anime, while training on a cruise ship, he pulls on a lever in an attempt to open a door, but instead breaks the lever and cuts off power to the boat for several minutes. In a Jump advertisement for the Eyeshield 21 Nintendo DS game, Shin accidentally breaks the DS he was playing with. Instead, he uses the stylus to exercise. *Although Ootawara always hit him on the back, Shin never seems to care about it. *Shin has only missed one day of training and it was due to him breaking a turnstile in the subway. *His most common pose is him pulling on his glove, seen almost every time he enters a scene. *After his team's loss to the Devil Bats, Shin seems to be shown smiling more (after the match against Deimon, after Deimon won the Christmas Bowl and after the successful triple blitz of Clifford D. Louis with Sena and Agon) *Shin is so focused on everything concerning football that during an interview he was asked what kind of girls he liked, he said he liked girls who can take pride on being a part of the team, confusing a team manager from a girlfriend. *Shin seems to suffer from prosopagnosia as he can only identify people by their muscles and movements instead of their faces. *The most technologically advanced gadget he's been seen holding that was not destroyed is a stopwatch. Category:Eyeshield 21 characters